BAYONNE – The Bayonne Bridge will be closed from 11:59 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1, to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 3, as work proceeds on the "Raise the Roadway" project, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced.

The scheduled weekend work will expedite the safe removal of portions of the structure of the bridge and for the lifting of large steel and concrete sections onto the bridge, a spokesman said.

The Port Authority urges motorists to use the Goethals Bridge as an alternative.

The bridge will also be closed to traffic the weekends of Aug. 8-10 and 15-17 from 11:59 p.m. on Fridays to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

To receive the latest updates, travelers should register for bridge and tunnel alerts at http://paalerts.com/, call 511, or visit www.511NY.org or www.511NJ.org.

The $1.3 billion bridge project is designed to raise the navigational clearance under the crossing to 215 feet to allow larger, modern ships to travel under it.